After the amazing success of their last album, El Camino, The Black Keys were faced with a familiar dilemma; how do you follow that? The last album was a hook laden rock and roll masterpiece and as the title of the new one, Turn Blue suggests, they approached it by drawing on a different texture of their sound while still maintaining their credibility and identity. Quite a feat.

There is a definite psychedelic haze affecting each song that was not present previously, the simple blues-rock riffs they have relied on in the past have been deftly replaced by a more meandering tone. These are songs that have more layers and instrumentation thanks to their co-producer and the artists who now seems to be an unofficial third member of the band, Dangermouse.

Because of Dan Auerbach’s own experience producing other artists The Black Keys have grown exponentially. The atmospheric touches are placed perfectly to augment the somber mood many of the songs convey while not compromising the catchy nature of their melodies.

This two man group who once sounded like a fuzzed out blues band now have much more depth and adventurousness and on their eighth studio album they’ve managed to avoid the stigma of repeating themselves while maintaining a consistent sound. On Turn Blue they can be mistaken for no one else but The Black Keys and yet each song is different from the last.